BC Partners and Cinven ponder Amadeus IPO

The shareholders of Spanish travel reservations business Amadeus, including BC Partners and Cinven, are understood to have hired investment bank Rothschild to study a possible stock offering of the company.

The shareholders of Spanish travel reservations business Amadeus, including BC Partners and Cinven, are understood to have hired investment bank Rothschild to study a possible stock offering of the company.

“The shareholders have given the mandate for an initial public offering and the search for a lead manager for the deal,” one source with knowledge of the deal is quoted as saying to Reuters yesterday.

BC Partners and Cinven jointly hold a 52.8 per cent stake in the business, Air France has 23.14 per cent, and Iberia and Lufthansa each have a 11.57 per cent share.

A listing, which is earmarked for next year, would offer up a 30 per cent stake in the business to both institutional investors and minority shareholders.

Amadeus was delisted in 2005 when BC Partners and Cinven bought their stake from the three airlines in a €4.05bn buyout of the business.The investor consortium offered a price of €7.35 per share to take Amadeus private from the Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges.Amadeus, which is now valued at around €8bn, generated revenue of €2.861bn last year.